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Small Joys: Volume 3

Spring has sprung, days are sunny, and there’s so much to be grateful for! About time for another Small Joys post, right??

Actually, truth be told, I was struggling with some major discontentment this morning. After wallowing for a bit, I convinced myself that the best way to snap out of it was to cultivate gratitude. So, here I am!

Here are the little things that have been bringing me joy lately:

1. Warmer weather! It is no secret that I am a summer girl through and through. I’ve been loving all of the sunshine and t-shirt weather we’ve been having lately. And, I love that it stays light outside so much later with the time change! This past week, we had dinner outside for the first time this spring, and it was glorious.

4. Birthday cards! Does anyone else have a hard time parting with cards? I am a major card hoarder. I can’t ever throw away cards right after they’ve been given to me, but I do try to go back periodically to purge. My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I’m still enjoying the little army of birthday cards on my kitchen counter. At what point is it no longer acceptable to have them on display??

5. Gluten-free cake from JP’s Pastry. This exclusively gluten-free bakery based in Benson, NC, makes the BEST cakes! We bought a chocolate salted caramel layer cake to share with my family for my birthday, and everyone loved it. So much, in fact, that we forgot to take a photo of it before we dived in and demolished it. It’s always nice to find a gluten-free alternative that tastes just as good as the real thing!

6. My sparkly mermaid! Wes and I spent my birthday visiting Virginia Beach and Norfolk, where the city symbol is a mermaid. We tried to go to The Mermaid Factory, a Wine and Design-esque shop where you paint plaster mermaids, but they were already booked for the day. Instead, we purchased two of their take home kits and painted our mermaid and dolphin last weekend. It was a great way to relax, and now we have fun souvenirs from our trip!

7. Friends. Wes and I have been making our way through the entire series of Friends on Netflix for awhile now, watching a couple of episodes here and there. Now, we have only one season left, and I am distraught. I don’t want it to end!! Oh, and please don’t tell me how it’s going to end, unless you want to be dead to me.

8. This cornbread taco casserole. Made it this week and it is so, so good. I may or may not have eaten the leftovers for breakfast this morning. I actually love all of Mary Ross’s recipes! Most of them are gluten-free and vegan or can be modified to be gluten-free or vegan. I used regular dairy cheese on the casserole this week just to speed things up a bit, but her vegan cheese substitutes are really good.

What are y’all joyful about lately? Let’s share and keep the gratitude flowing!

Such a fun list to keep! I keep all my old birthday cards too. I used to never, ever throw them away, but after a few years my stack was ridiculously high, so now I just keep the most personal ones. I love the idea behind The Mermaid Factory; I’ve never really been into Wine and Design painting nights, but Paint Your Pot was always a favorite of mine as a kid, and this sounds like an adult version. 🙂

Great perspective! Yeah, taking a few minutes to write down things that bring you joy can help break out from wallowing 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed Inferno! Angels & Demons was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read, but that’s partly because I read it while I was in Italy so whenever they talked about a new landmark in Rome I went hunting for it, and then I read that scene on location. (Uhmmm awesome!! And nerdy. I know.) That mermaid is super cute and ahhhhhh Friends!! My college roommate was a HUGE Friends fan so I’ve watched a ton of episodes but never in the correct order, ha! I keep meaning to go through the series and watch it in order one of these days, such a great show! 😀

I am a warm weather gal, too, so I thrilled to see the temperatures rising! I adore your sparkly mermaid. My daughter is obsessed so I need to find a place like that for her! Love your positivity, thanks for sharing.